Zeal Function X Coilover
 

Hello everybody,

After asking about coilovers over here
http://www.the370z.com/brakes-suspen...uspension.html
I thank everybody who chimed in his advise or opinion and at last I decided to go for Zeal Function X due to being made by reputable company (Endless), priced right with a great shipping cost and QAR/JPY rate has been improving recently.

Other parts I got

- SPL Front Camber Arm
- SPL Rear Camber Link
- SPL Rear Traction Link
- SPL Lockout kit

Specification of the coilover as follow:

- Steel Construction, Chrome plated.
- Mono tube with 30 click adjustable damping.
- OEM style rear suspension.
- 12kg spring rate front and rear.
- Independent height adjustment.
- Upgraded front coil springs to X-coil R.
- Has been told they will retain OEM height with -60mm range.

I didn't install them, actually I am waiting CJM RRP to arrive so I can go to the workshop at once. From the look and feel, they really feel like a quality parts and the front with the upgraded springs feels light, but the rears are heavy, will try to get weight figures at the shop in two to three weeks time.

For the time being will leave these photos ;)

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_205410.jpg

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_205352.jpg

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_205430.jpg

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_161805.jpg

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_205503.jpg

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_205456.jpg

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_205442.jpg

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_205436.jpg

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/...223_205757.jpg



And I cannot have a post without questions :p

First, the alignment, after researching, I decided to go as follow

Front camber -2 caster 5.5 toe 0
Rear camber -1.2 toe in 1/8

keeping in mind that my wheels wearing PSS tires currently, after changing to better rubber like RE71r, PSC2 or R888r I will increase camber to -2.5 or -3 front and to -1.8 or -2 rear.

Do they look alright?

Then, I have whiteline swaybars on the car with front at soft setting and full hard rear, I like how the excessive understeer at turns exit reduced and would like to get opinions on whether to keep the car at same setting or to return the default setting at first and then change to my liking.

Reserved for review and more photos :)


Just throwing this LOL

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1485639146

Update:

More install photos

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1486330651

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1486330651

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1486330651

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1486330651

This is the current level

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1486330651

Will change height this week as it should be settled.

My first impression:

I should admit, I was wrong in having multiple items to install at once :eekdance: the Solid engine mounts are ruining the experience :rofl2: it feels like a race car now.

Nevertheless, after I received the car I turned the dampers to full soft setting, the feel in street is no different than stock, which is a great thing. Also, I went for alignment. I didn't go to the track yet to test it there but I tried to push it a little in an empty roundabout and the car handling is a lot different, it turned tightly unlike the understeering feel before, hopefully it doesn't oversteer like hell in track :tup:


and this is my current alignment setting

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1486331691

It is nearly -2.8 front camber and 1.8 rear camber. I will go again after changing my height with aim of getting -3 front camber, Zero front toe, as much caster as I can get, -2 rear camber and -0.16 total toe

Very nice! Anxious to hear your reviews as well!

It has been overdue :ugh2:, but at last, I dropped the car today at the shop for installation.

Will follow back during the week :)

Updated the second post :)

looks clean, wished it was a true coilover setup

They mostly sell oem style, only on certain models, they offer the option of oem or true-type.

Update:

I went to the track long ago :D on February 11th, even though I got better laptimes at track and felt the car got big potential, I suffered from excessive oversteer. The day ended when I experienced the lift off oversteer on a high speed turn :( luckily no injuries to me or the car, just some dents to my volks :shakes head:

My setting was:

Height from ground to fender line: Front 680mm Rear 690mm
Full hard front Coil and 10 from soft rear
Front swaybar on full hard and rear on medium
Alignment -3 front -2 rear stock toe (I believe both in F0.08 R0.11) Caster 5.5

So to solve and after a lot of asking around and research, I did the following to try to get the car to understeer and then will try one by one adjustments:

Rear height lowered by 15mm (transfer more weight to back and avoid lift off oversteer)
Swaybar full soft at back
Less aggressive alignment -2.5 front camber -2 rear caster 5.5 toe in 0.05 front in 0.11 rear. The toe is the thing I didn't understand, the guy who worked on my car said that stock values in his Hunter machine is showing the 0 toe although it is not, and I think I will get SPL rear midlink to get more toe adjustments.


There was a trackday on February 17th, but rainy one, so no laptimes or testing. This Saturday hopefully the weather will be great and will have a chance to try the new adjustments. If there is no improvements, I will let one of my friends (who participate in local and regional road race events) to drive the car and give his suggestion.

In addition to alignment, I'd lower the REAR spring rate, run the swaybar, as you said, at full soft or remove your rear sway bar altogether if you don't want to go down in spring rate.

And get the car corner weighted!

Once you get a good balance front/back and left/right, you can start making adjustments to dial in the oversteer/understeer with the mechanical pieces/alignment and then fine tune with damper settings according to track conditions. And don't forget tire pressure. That'll have an effect too.

Welcome to the rabbit hole. Be safe.

Thanks Ape Factory for the suggestions, and corner balance is my next step, I was going to do it as soon as I install the coilovers but due to settling them, I preferred to wait. Also we will get a long break as Losail will host the first round of Moto GP this month.

I would already tried every possible option if our trackdays were longer, but we got a 3 hour event, which we cannot do any minor work beside tire pressure. And yes, I am a culprit of not checking tire pressure which I deeply know is not good practice from my side, but I wasn't having many long runs until recently when I got the oil cooler and RRP installed, so I didn't think it needs to be checked if I only go hard for 5 minutes and slow down after that.

Yeah it's tough at short track events because you do pay a decent amount of money and have limited time. You certainly don't want to spend it in the pits adjusting things!

It's just going to take some time to get everything adjusted and set up to your liking. There are so many little things that can have an effect which is why it's called the rabbit hole as there never seems to be a bottom :)

Lastly, if possible, see if you can contact Zeal and get their suggestions. That may give you a good base to start from.

Yeah tough specially for a long track over 2 mins a lap for a total distance of 5.7km.

For now we have a long break and I can do a lot of things before next track day. And yes, adjustments are unlimited and every mix will get different result. For now, I will do Yaw sensor switch (as I didn't do it until now) so I could feel the car more without interference, I cannot slide the car to know how it may feel om the limit, the traction kicks directly and just make it more trickier for me. Also, will contact Zeal to get suggestions.


Lastly, I don't know if I need to get better rubbers. My current view of the matter is, if I made the car balanced with current PSS, as they will expose any imperfections in the setup better than R compound, it will result in a good starting point when tire change is due. Not sure my point clear :D

Rephrase, will I get better results tuning the suspension on street tire or I should do it on the tires I plan to use in future.

If you plan on running a track-only tire setup in the future, and exclusively, I'd wait for the new rubber. I've never tracked the PSS tire but I do have them on my car now and they're a very good tire. I do think a track specific tire is ultimately going to give you more grip. It really comes down to what you're trying to accomplish. I'd think the PSS is a good tire for a track novice to start on as they're pretty forgiving.

As for the VDC system, I've had pretty good results with EcuTek's traction control. It's adjustable if you also purchase the Bluetooth setup and it doesn't cut power and step on the rear brakes like the VDC does. I have it set up where I just turn my VDC off and the EcuTek traction control is activated.

I totally agree regarding EcuTeck! I turn it the tc off using it on the track in the dry and the car behaves the way it should and I turned it on when I was tracking in the wet and it work perfectly. It's not as intrusive as the vdc. I had one of those oh crap the back end want to lead moments and I made my corrections as I would normally and the EcuTeck tc worked like a charm in so much that it simply added some braking and then let go as I go off the throttle and start providing my own inputs. It is hard to describe but I have been very impressed with it and you don't lose your use of abs not that is a biggie for me.

Appreciate all the feedbacks, it really helps.

About the tune, I already went with Uprev and I don't think I will switch to Ecutek anytime soon. I don't know if uprev has similar solution.

And I'm trying to make the car as track oriented as possible but without taking its streetability. This was my target when I started upgrading it, and still :). I could say I am not a beginner but not pro either, I started on bad and somehow worn tires :rofl2: and then changed to PSS, which did pretty well and was a lot stickier than my old set. After installing the cooler, I started to feel their shortcomings ;) and also felt the car doesn't want to let me have some fun like in following clip, unlike my SRT charger when I turn the traction off, it is actually turned off and I can predict what's gonna happen.

https://youtu.be/Dh4G9LTGmsE?t=8m6s tried to slide the car like I do in the charger but it held me, or maybe torque difference, not sure.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRGlkgUBni-/

I am trying to get RE71-R now and find a reliable supplier, read a lot about it and feel they will be right tires for trackdays and autocross. If couldn't find them, I will go to either R888R, NT01 or PSC2.